My day is coming to an end. I sit down in my living room in front of the tv where my parents are watching CNN. As I watch for about 20 minutes, the drama of the day’s news (or at least the dramatized version they put out) enters my eyes and ears. I then decide to get up and go over to my xbox. I turn it on and play Fifa 19 for another 20 minutes or so. After I win my match (obviously), I go to bed for the night. Before falling asleep however, I pick up my phone and watch a bit of youtube for another 20 minutes. Once I see it’s getting late and I need to go to sleep, I turn off my phone, put it on my nightstand, and turn over and fall asleep. That last hour was spent in receiving information through screens of different types, with lights, sounds, and information entering my eyes and ears, to be stored in my brain.
The next day, I go on a road trip with my family. I’m in northern Washington state, and as we drive through a remote stretch of forest and mountain, the lack of service on my phone is really a blessing. I look outside for long periods and admire the largely untouched nature. We stop at a viewpoint on the roadside overlooking the edge of the mountain and the valley beneath. I stand there for a while simply gazing at my surroundings. Vast expanses of trees lie before me, as well as a blue sky with a few white clouds in it. The thin road winds through the scenery beneath. This was what the world was meant to look like when it was created, I think to myself.
A few days later, as I sit down to write about my two segments of time spent in two environments, one manmade and the other natural, I notice the difference is stark. For one, my time spent in front of screens was dark, with light coming only from a few artificial lights and from the screens, while my time outside was well lit by the sun. Clearly this is not always the case in these two situations, but it frequently is. In addition, my time spent in front of screens was relaxing in a way, but not entirely because I had information thrown at me the entire time. The news, the game, and whatever I watched on youtube all required me to pay attention, receive, and understand the data coming at me, and in the case of the game, act according to what I was seeing and hearing. Also, everything I was seeing through the screens was not real in front of my face. It was either a broadcast of an event in another place or a simulation of an event that was not real. By contrast, my time outside on the mountainside was much calmer. I was still receiving information (the views I was seeing), but I had to work much less to receive it. Also what I was seeing was completely real and not virtual. Time spent in front of screens of various kinds can be useful and relaxing, but we should spend more of our time in front of another view, nature. We should not ignore what it has to offer our senses.